Gorbachev Seeks Big Soviet Role In Asia

November 23, 1986|By Thom Shanker, Chicago Tribune.

MOSCOW — Mikhail Gorbachev`s four-day visit to India this week is part of a strategy to counter American political and military advantages in the region and stake the Kremlin`s claim to a leading role in Asian and Pacific affairs, diplomats say.

After arriving in New Delhi Tuesday as the guest of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Gorbachev is to address a joint session of Parliament, initial consular agreements, complete cultural exchanges and sign trade and economic pacts worth billions of rupees.

But private sessions are certain to involve a renewed attempt by the Soviet leader to enlist the support of a longstanding, dependable ally for a Kremlin-sponsored All-Asian security conference.

Gorbachev is expected to raise the U.S. sale of high-technology weapons to Pakistan and warming American relations with China. He then will argue that Moscow`s proposal is the best answer to India`s potentially precarious military position, diplomats predict.

India fought a border war with China in 1962, and it has fought three bitter wars with neighboring Pakistan.

``India is a major friend, a major voice in the Third World and is the key to Soviet security concerns in Asia,`` said a diplomat from a NATO nation who specializes in regional affairs.

However, New Delhi has been cool to the Soviet call for a regional security conference.

``We are for Asian security. The desirability has never been absent from our thinking,`` a senior Indian diplomat said. ``But it is wrong to compare Europe to Asia and think Asian problems can only be solved the same way.``

Analysts attribute India`s reluctance to fears the Kremlin may relegate Indian relations to a lesser status in attempts at rapprochement with China.

Indian leaders also want to maintain a certain distance from the Soviet Union in order to receive Western high technology that is barred from export to the USSR.

During his public appearances in India, Gorbachev is expected to repeat the Soviet nuclear disarmament proposals presented at the mini-summit in Iceland to show that American defense policies and the international monetary system threaten Third World economies, analysts say.

The analysts say the Soviets are not so much concerned about U.S.-Pakistan-China relations as they are about the strong link between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul.

Before Gorbachev came to power in March, 1985, Soviet diplomatic efforts in Asia were marked by indifference, high-handedness and neglect.

China moved closer to the U.S. in the 1970s and became one of Japan`s important trading partners. North Korea appeared to be leaning toward Peking in its delicate balancing act between the USSR and China.

Meanwhile, the occupation of Cambodia by Soviet-backed Vietnamese troops and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan further alienated nonaligned Asian powers.

``The view from the Kremlin must have been one of being surrounded by hostile powers in the Far East, and they probably thought they saw American handiwork,`` an Asian specialist said.

Gorbachev first proposed the Asian conference on security in May, 1985, during a Kremlin banquet for Gandhi, who was making his first trip abroad after the assassination of his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on Oct. 31, 1984.

Terming Asian tensions more acute and painful in some ways than NATO-Warsaw Pact security questions, Gorbachev suggested convening an Asia session similar to the 1975 Helsinki conference on security and cooperation, which formalized East-West spheres of influence in Europe.

It is assumed that Gorbachev would use an Asian conference to gain international recognition of the status quo in Indochina and legitimize the Soviet Union`s role in regional affairs.

In a speech July 28 in Vladivostok, Gorbachev said the Soviet Union ``is also an Asian and Pacific country`` that ``realizes the complex problems of this vast region.``

He praised India as ``the recognized leader`` of the nonaligned states, and said the U.S. was creating ``a militarized triangle of Washington, Tokyo and Seoul`` in an attempt to control Asian affairs.

Moscow is India`s largest arms supplier and until recently its largest trading partner. Indian diplomats said trade last year between the two nations reached $4 billion, up 85 percent from the early 1970s.

In addition, in 1971 the two nations signed a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation, which the USSR negotiates with only its closest allies.